To The Editor,

Who do you call when it’s the police breaking the law? What do you do when your council person and mayor are uninterested in finding a viable solution; when the state says it’s a “local issue.” Why does the entire state train and recertify its officers at a dense urban shooting range across the street from two public schools? We deserve for our local and State governments to protect us from harm, not to actively harm us and our children. We deserve for our children to not be desensitized to the sound of loud gunfire.

My child deserves to take her midday nap without a white noise machine. Cranston PD is violating the city noise ordinance, as demonstrated by the unbiased data collected by Brown University. “But it’s the police.” People are scared to speak up, and we’re less safe for it.

If there ever were an active shooting situation in my neighborhood, no one would call the police in time. We would assume it’s just police training; the teachers and students in those schools wouldn’t react quickly. These concerns are not isolated to a handful of residents. We are aware that the police need to be trained but let’s not pretend there are no solutions available. It can be moved, it can be enclosed, and they can stop renting it out, etc. This is a problem with solutions, let’s find one together.

Heidi Lavigne

Meshanticut/Knightsville